via Mail editor: How I joined Team Zanu PF 24 June 2014
DETAINED Sunday Mail editor, Edmund Kudzayi, is now mulling over his predicament in the icy discomfort of a police cell, a shock fall from grace for a man who hobnobbed with the Zanu PF elite at the ‘Shake Shake’ building in Harare as the party strategized for its election triumph last year.
Authorities now claim that while helping Zanu PF campaign for the elections, Kudzayi would also steal into the unruly shadows of cyberspace to attack, shame and generally scandalise the party and its leaders as the notorious Facebook character Baba Jukwa.
Meanwhile, in a statement made available to NewZimbabwe.com on Monday, Kudzayi explains how he found his way into the heart of a famously paranoid Zanu PF.The statement is dated June 8, 2014 which was the same weekend President Robert Mugabe publicly rebuked Information Minister Jonathan Moyo for allegedly appointing former critics of Zanu PF as editors of government-run newspapers.
Moyo reportedly went to see Mugabe the following day in a bid to calm the storm, amid speculation his days in government and Zanu PF were numbered.
EDMUND KUDZAYI: How I joined Team Zanu PF In 2012 I launched an anonymous online personality (AmaiJukwa) that focused on Zimbabwean politics. At the time I was living in the United Kingdom running a media and software business. My decision to be anonymous was motivated by a desire to protect my business interests.
The articles were published on NewZimbabwe.com and soon attracted the attention of the State media in Zimbabwe. The Herald and the ZBC website began reproducing my articles from NewZimbabwe.com and publishing them on their platforms.
NewZimbabwe.com began to receive enquiries from Zanu PF as to my identity. They did not know who I was as we communicated via email and I was unwilling to reveal my identity.
In February 2013 I anonymously released a set of online election adverts in support of Zanu PF. There was a renewed interest in my identity by the Zanu PF information department.
At that time I was unwilling to directly engage for fear of compromising my business interests in the United Kingdom so I contacted an old friend Mike Nyambuya Jnr, the son of Major General Mike Nyambuya, and asked him to visit Zanu PF HQ as an intermediary and find out what they wanted.
He met Psychology Maziwisa the Zanu PF Deputy Director of Information who expressed an interest in engaging my media services in the development of election advertising material for Zanu PF. I agreed and was immediately put in contact with Maziwisa. A few weeks later I received a phone call from Rugare Gumbo expressing a keen interest in my work; I subsequently met him and was deployed to work with Team Zanu PF.
In June 2013 I returned to Zimbabwe and was introduced to Professor Jonathan Moyo who was heading the Team Zanu PF media team. I was tasked with producing Zanu PF’s radio and television campaign material.
It is at that time that I formally met The Herald editorial team. By that time they had already offered me a position as a contributor and I had been writing under Political Mondays with Amai Jukwa since February 2013.
After the elections I remained in the country and did consultancy work for the Ministry of Defence, ZiFM Stereo and some freelance work.
In early 2014 I was approached by Zimpapers and offered the position of Sunday Mail editor. I accepted in March and signed a contract in April.
COMMENTS
Usatambe nenyoka. Inonzi ZANU Chiororo!!!
Why did he support zpf from diaspora when he had run away from the country in the first place. Appears like this was jonso’s strategic move to have the boys support zpf from abroad and be noticed and get invited into the party. Plan worked well but by appointing them editors of zpf papers he went over board. So in essence baba Jukwa is jonso and the one gaffe where baba Jukwa singed off as Prof Jonathan was a genuine mistake not somebody trying to implicate jonso.
Ungaburitsa shumba muchizarira inobva yakudyaka inonzi zanupf
Ukabudisa ngwe kwete shumba vaWounded Buffallo.
Icho ………… Charira
You sup with the devil you end up on the end of a very long and nasty pitch for. Be warned Zimbabwe.” And you shall KNOW them by their fruit!” What fruit do we see??????
No sympathy for you young man AIDS inouraya
So as a reward for helping Zanu pf to ‘victory’, this 28 year old kid gets a job as the editor of a national weekly paper. Do you see the problem here, all the people holding positions in the civil service and government parastatals are simply party cadres and loyalists who are being rewarded for their work for the party without regard for the suitability of their skills, qualifications and experience to the posts. No wonder all parastatals and govt departments are in such shambles. Unqualified cronies are being rewarded for loyalty to the party, these people believe that their duty in these positions is to look after the party’s interests not yours not mine not the nation’s interests.
if u sleep around with the devil who do you blame when you give birth to a vampire? now its sucking ur blood deal with it.